Baidu Introduces Chatbot

"BEIJING -- At an intimate event space in Baidu Inc.'s Beijing headquarters on Thursday, the Chinese search giant's Chief Executive Robin Li sought to wow an in-person and online audience by introducing its AI-powered chatbot, Ernie Bot.

Mr. Li showed a series of prerecorded videos of the chatbot -- the first real Chinese contender to ChatGPT, developed by San Francisco-based firm OpenAI -- answering questions about Chinese literature, solving math problems and generating images and videos.

The only thing missing was a live demo of Ernie Bot itself.

The presentation drew sharp criticism from online viewers who were disappointed not to see Ernie Bot performing live. While Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google have also relied on prerecorded demos, many commentators contrasted the event to OpenAI's real-time demo two days earlier of its latest model, GPT-4.

Investors also balked: Baidu's Hong Kong-traded stock price plunged as much as 9% after the presentation started, before closing 6.4% lower.

"Everyone will be benchmarking Ernie Bot today against ChatGPT, even against GPT-4 -- that bar is really high," Mr. Li said at the event. "You could say that of all the world's biggest companies, Baidu was first to release."

Microsoft used OpenAI's technology, while Google, Meta Platforms Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. have yet to release similar products, he said. Ernie Bot will be available to invited users from Thursday, Baidu said.

Mr. Li acknowledged that many people had asked him why the company rushed to launch the technology and whether it was truly ready.

"During our initial internal testing, it's true I wouldn't describe the experience as perfect," Mr. Li said. But the market demanded it, he said, adding that "everyone is waiting for this technology."

Ernie Bot represents a high-stakes gamble for Baidu. The chatbot could solidify Baidu's reputation as an AI leader, a label it has repeatedly assigned itself in recent years to regain investor favor after tumbling from the elite tier of China's tech giants.

In pushing something out quickly, the company sought both to capitalize on the wild popularity of ChatGPT and beat its domestic competitors.

The initial market reaction, however, hearkened back to Google's debut of its AI chatbot Bard, which it also rushed to push out in the face of OpenAI and Microsoft's challenge to its core search business. In one day, the American search giant lost $100 billion from its market capitalization after Bard produced factual errors in a demo.

Mr. Li showed videos of Ernie Bot's capabilities, including its fluency with Chinese idioms and ability to generate audio speaking in different Chinese dialects. Mr. Li said the bot would be great in five areas -- literary creation, business writing, mathematical calculation, Chinese-language understanding and multimodal generation, such as generating images or videos from texts.

Online, some people said Baidu wouldn't have shied away from chatting with Ernie Bot live if it had mature capabilities.

One attendee at the event was more optimistic. He said his firm could consider using Ernie Bot, such as by having it read through various documents to generate summaries as well as give titles to videos that his company produces.

Once seen as one of China's shiniest tech giants, alongside Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd., Baidu's standing took a hit after its core advertising revenue began to slow and the company reported a loss in 2019. It has since struggled to regain investor confidence.

Mr. Li didn't specify on stage when the chatbot would become widely available. Baidu initially said last month that it would embed the chatbot into its search engine and open it to the public in March.

Some employees told The Wall Street Journal that the tight timeline has been insufficient for developing a well-functioning product.

Until the final days before the launch, the team was still rushing to ready the chatbot, leaving no time left for a planned internal rollout to perform companywide testing, according to people familiar with the matter." [1]

1. Baidu Introduces Chatbot -- Without a Live Demo
Hao, Karen; Kubota, Yoko; Huang, Raffaele.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 17 Mar 2023: B.4.